Sibby Online

Black conservatives speak out

NewsMax has a report on a recent panel discussion:

It was not a good evening for Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the NAACP, and the Congressional Black Caucus at the Heritage Foundation Thursday as a panel concluded these reputed icons "have utterly failed to provide moral leadership in the Black community and have become the tools for extremist political agendas."

The panel of conservative Black Americans called for the reinstitution of principled black leadership in the tradition of Booker T. Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny (BOND) and The Heritage Foundation co-sponsored the historic conference – "Responding To The Call: The New Black Vanguard Conference" - to address what they see as a crisis in leadership and "the spiraling moral and physical decline taking place within America's inner cities."

Excerpts:

"It's time out for all those not called by God but by their mama," jeered Peterson, who noted that unlike Jackson he was "proud to be an American and not stuck in Africa somewhere." Rev. Peterson spent about an hour prodding the panel into observations about and possible cures for the breakdown of the family and the church in the modern Black communities.

One of Peterson's own observations was that so many great cities have a Black police chief, Black mayor, "but they're still blaming the white man."

…

Innis lamented the "liberals coming into Black churches" and "the 1500 black children aborted every day." He chided the myth that "slavery has done some irreparable harm."

"Our children are not reading Mark Twain [considered a racist for using the N-word] but are listening to violent rap."

"The liberal media advertises that these folks [Jackson, et. al.] speak for us," Innis said. "Yet the polls suggest that Black people oppose homosexual marriage and favor school vouchers."

…

Another panelist, Gloria Jackson, president of the Booker T. Washington Speakers Network and the great granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, lamented that "so much of his life and legacy was lost because his voice was silenced."

She noted that Washington's mantra was that "personal transformation starts from within. We need to be leaders within our own lives, our own schools, our own vibrant communities."

Jackson expressed hope that after "40 years of dependency," the cycle could be broken with Blacks once again taking charge of their own destinies. She recalled the Rev. Jesse Jackson coming to her church recently where he received "a lukewarm reception" – not the wild enthusiasm noted in past visits. "Things are changing," she said.

…

Niger Innis also warned that the "clear and present danger to the black community" was something he calls the "entertainment/industrial complex," a phenomenon that he suggests accounts for the unhappy perception in inner city communities that "cops are bad and criminals chic."

Krugman’s hypocrisy exposed

From Don Luskin (via Social Security Choice):

Paul Krugman has gotten his smears confused in his New York Times column today. He accuses advocates of Social Security reform of smearing AARP, a reform opponent. But Krugman himself smeared AARP in November 2003, when it supported President Bush's initiative to provide a Medicare prescription drug benefit (which, like all Bush initiatives, Krugman opposed). Then Krugman called AARP a member of "the coalition of the bought-off" -- and claimed it supported Bush's initiative in order to enrich itself through its insurance business:

Over the years AARP has become much more than an advocacy and service organization for older Americans. It receives more than $150 million each year in commissions on insurance, mutual funds and prescription drugs sold to its members.

...it may seem odd on the surface that William Novelli, AARP's chief executive, wrote a glowing preface to Newt Gingrich's book on health care reform. After all, Mr. Gingrich has long advocated turning the administration of Medicare over to private companies — an unpopular idea, and also an expensive one (forget the clichés about inefficient government: private companies have much higher overhead than Medicare). But what looks like wasted money to taxpayers and retirees looks like opportunity to private providers. Enough said.

Of course now AARP is a model of probity -- of "principle" as Krugman is fond of saying of those who agree with him.

In today's column Krugman also objects that "People like myself" are being smeared by "one scornful Bush aide" as "the 'reality-based community.'" Yet Krugman has used that term himself -- presumably not scornfully -- in a speech last November, when he was moping about how the election had turned out:

It's going to be a very grim period...In particular it's a huge blow to those of us who see ourselves as part of the reality-based community.

PAC Man

A Sibby Online reader sent me this link:

John Thune is proving himself a rare first-year senator in many regards. Along with the heightened level of attention he is receiving in GOP circles for defeating former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Thune has started his own PAC, Heartland Values. Not wasting any time, Thune has already signaled at least one Republican senator up for re-election that he plans to help with his PAC’s funds, Jim Talent.

On the left, media darling Barack Obama has also started his own pack. This won’t come as any great shock to BB readers, but consider the gap in coverage between these two men in their respective victories. Obama understandably deserves coverage for his victory as an African-American into the Senate. But he did so beating Alan Keyes. Regardless of his ethnic biography, the media was more focused on the fact that he was essentially the only positive story for Democrats out of last year’s election and they weren’t going to let his success go uncovered – again, and again, and again.

On the other hand, Senator Thune captured a historic victory over Daschle. Regardless of one’s political views, it’s a great story. Nonetheless, he has not received the level of coverage he deserves. Imagine if his victory had played out under the exact same circumstances, but he had a (D) after his name. In the meantime, I’m sure Thune and his supporters can reconcile themselves with winning – both in their great 2004 victory and in helping good candidates like Jim Talent in the future.

Coulter defends Gannon

As Daschle’s sore losers claim they don’t care about Gannon’s personal life, and then use his "checkered past" to attack John Thune, Ann Coulter’s column exposes how the hateful Democrats are ignoring some facts. Coulter starts out with a fact that the Democrats are trying real hard to ignore:

In response to the public disgrace and ruin of New York Times editor Howell Raines, CBS anchor Dan Rather and CNN news director Eason Jordan, liberals are directing their fury at the blogs. Once derided as people sitting around their living rooms in pajamas, now obscure writers for unknown websites are coming under more intensive background checks than CIA agents.

The heretofore-unknown Jeff Gannon of the heretofore-unknown "Talon News" service was caught red-handed asking friendly questions at a White House press briefing. Now the media is hot on the trail of a gay escort service that Gannon may have run some years ago. Are we supposed to like gay people now, or hate them? Is there a website where I can go to and find out how the Democrats want me to feel about gay people on a moment-to-moment basis?

Liberals keep rolling out a scrolling series of attacks on Gannon for their Two Minutes Hate, but all their other charges against him fall apart after three seconds of scrutiny. Gannon's only offense is that he may be gay.

Yes, the Democrats only took notice of Gannon after he was outed. So much for Democrats tolerance. Next Coulter takes on the press pass charge:

First, liberals claimed Gannon was a White House plant who received a press pass so that he could ask softball questions – a perk reserved for New York Times reporters during the Clinton years. Their proof was that while "real" journalists (like Jayson Blair) were being denied press passes, Gannon had one, even though he writes for a website that no one has ever heard of – but still big enough to be a target of liberal hatred! (By the way, if writing for a news organization with no viewers is grounds for being denied a press pass, why do MSNBC reporters have them?)

On the op-ed page of the New York Times, Maureen Dowd openly lied about the press pass, saying: "I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the 'Barberini Faun' is credentialed?"

Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president. Still, it would be suspicious if Dowd were denied a press pass while someone from "Talon News" got one, even if he is a better reporter.

But Dowd was talking about two different passes without telling her readers (a process now known in journalism schools as "Dowdification"). Gannon didn't have a permanent pass; he had only a daily pass. Almost anyone can get a daily pass – even famed Times fantasist Maureen Dowd could have gotten one of those. A daily pass and a permanent pass are altogether different animals. The entire linchpin of Dowd's column was a lie. (And I'm sure the Times' public editor will get right on Dowd's deception.)

But Gannon is not his real name:

Finally, liberals expressed shock and dismay that Gannon's real name is "James Guckert." On MSNBC's "Hardball," Chris Matthews introduced the Gannon scandal this way: "Coming up, how did a fake news reporter from a right-wing website get inside the White House press briefings and presidential news conferences?"

Reporter David Shuster then gave a report on "the phony alias Guckert used to play journalist" – as opposed to the real name Shuster uses to play journalist. (You can tell Schuster is a crackerjack journalist because he uses phrases like "phony alias.") With all the subtlety of a gay-bashing skinhead, Matthews spent the rest of the segment seeing how many times he could smear Gannon by mentioning "HotMilitaryStuds.com" and laughing.

Any day now, Matthews will devote entire shows to exposing Larry Zeigler, Gerald Riviera and Michael Weiner – aka Larry King, Geraldo Rivera and Matthews' former MSNBC colleague Michael Savage. As a newspaper reporter, Wolf Blitzer has written under the names Ze'ev Blitzer and Ze'ev Barak. The greatest essayist of modern times was Eric Blair, aka George Orwell. The worst essayist of modern times is "TRB" of The New Republic.

Coulter’s next point is very relevant concerning Daschle’s sore losers in South Dakota. They can not refute the content of his reports, so all they have to attack with is his personal life:

Liberals keep telling us the media isn't liberal, but in order to retaliate for the decimation of major news organizations like the New York Times, CBS News and CNN, all they can do is produce the scalp of an obscure writer for an unknown conservative Web page. And unlike Raines, Rather and Jordan, they can't even get Gannon for incompetence on the job.

The South Dakota Democrats are hoping to use the South Dakota MSM outlets to distribute their biased attack at John Thune by using Gannon’s personal life. I doubt the South Dakota MSM would be objective enough to cover the ‘content’ of Gannon’s work, because it includes the enormous amount of evidence showing the pro-Democrat bias of the Argus Leader. The MSM seem to watch out for each other. They did not report the findings before, why would they want to bring it up know?

CBS is bad news

From WorldNetDaily:

When Tom Fenton stepped down from CBS News in December after 34 years of service, he was praised by the president of the network as "the embodiment of the wise and worldly CBS News correspondent."

Now, Fenton is going public with criticism of his own network and television news in general, with his forthcoming book, titled "Bad News."

"I wrote this book out of conviction," Fenton told the Buffalo News. "I don't have a lot of illusions it's going to change things."

The publication, which is due out next week, condemns what Fenton calls the declining standards and bottom-line mentality of the news business.

As an example, he says cutbacks in foreign news quashed an interview he was setting up with Osama bin Laden in 1996.

"Our bosses saw him as an obscure Arab of no interest to our viewers," Fenton writes. "More concerned with saving dollars than pursuing the story, they killed the project."

"Perhaps I could have fought harder," he added. "But eventually, you really do get beaten down. Reporters work in the field. We can propose. The editors and producers dispose. There's no way you can force them to put something on the air."

Fenton, who said he wrote his book as a reporter not pulling any punches, said it's not possible for networks to provide in-depth coverage of worldly events when they're compacted to just 18 minutes of broadcast time.

"Once you get halfway through the CBS Evening News, the rest of it you can turn off," Fenton told the News. "There's nothing there you need to know. It's an attempt to entertain people and pump up ratings. If I want entertainment, I'll watch 'The Daily Show.'"

"We have literally dumbed down our public," he continued. "We have trained them to accept the coverage they're getting. We so rarely explain what's going on, there's no context. So, people of course, aren't interested. They have no idea what's going on."

Back from California

The reason for my lack of posts is due to my short trip to California. After getting back I found out a friend, co-worker, wonderful father & husband, and all around great person lost his courageous fight against skin cancer. I thought the end was near late last week as he still insisted on being at work. I think he stayed at work believing he was not giving up the fight of his life. Over the weekend he did not sleep, maybe thinking it would be the last time. Today he went to sleep for the last time. His life will always be an inspiration to me. I saw how he worked hard at teaching his son right from wrong. At the end I learned about a man who fought hard to the very end against all odds. I will miss him.

Busted, NYT & AARP

From Social Security Choice:

We Can’t Ignore Them Anymore, So Now We Have To Discredit Them

David Hogberg

That might as well be the headline for this “objective bit of news reporting” in the New York Times today about USA Next’s campaign for Social Security private accounts and against the AARP. The headline is biased enough:

A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vets

Not, “USA Next Targets AARP,” or “USA Next Set To Be Major Social Security Player.” No, we have to mention the Swift Boat Vets in the title. And then there is this schlock in the second paragraph:

The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush’s plan.

Translation: The AARP is just opposing the President’s plan, while USA Next is basically a lackey for the GOP. Well, let’s have a bit of fun and rewrite that paragraph, shall we?

The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush’s plan and which is on the government dole to the tune of over $60 million last year.

Ah, that’s more like it, no?

Conspiracy theories

Todd Epp has posted quite a conspiracy theory (scroll up). With all of that creativity he might come up with another based on the following:

1). Joe Conason comes up with a column full of misinformation. I posted a couple of those yesterday. Ryne McClaren has a 20-point analysis.

2). CBS News then follows up with more misinformation. See my post on that. Ryne McClaren has more.

3). A former paid Daschle campaign staffer starts blogging as a stay at home dad after Daschle’s defeat in November 2004.

4). The blogger seems obsessed with Gannon.

5). The blogger has also been posting Democrat talking points on Social Security.

6). Steve Hildebrand, former Daschle campaign manager, is now heading up an anti-Social Security organization.

7). Hildebrand writes an anti-Social Security reform letter in the Argus Leader.

8. The blogger, who was a formerly paid Daschle campaign staffer, also writes an anti-Social Security letter in the Argus Leader.

9). Look at who lives in Sioux Falls.

10). Speaking about Sioux Falls, Social Security and Democrat talking point; check out this excerpt from today’s Sioux Falls Argus Leader regarding Thune’s leadership role in Social Security reform:

But private accounts alone won't solve all the money problems in the retirement program. As more baby boomers retire, they will be drawing more benefits from Social Security than workers will be paying in payroll taxes. Democrats say the private accounts pose too much risk for workers, who now get a guaranteed benefit but would give up some of that security under Bush's plan. Some Republican lawmakers have sounded doubts about the plan as well.

The "guaranteed benefit" is not true:

One of the most enduring myths of Social Security is that a worker has a legal right to his or her Social Security benefits. Most workers assume that because they pay Social Security taxes into the system their whole working lives, they have some sort of legal guarantee to its benefits.

They assume wrong. In two landmark cases, Flemming v. Nestor and Helvering v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workers have no right to receive Social Security benefits. Congress and the president may change, reduce or even eliminate benefits at any time. Retirees must depend on the good will of 535 politicians to determine whether and how much they will receive in retirement. Where is the dignity in such a system?

In fact, Congress has already voted to reduce Social Security benefits. For example, in 1983, Congress raised the retirement age. Given the system's looming financial crisis, additional benefit cuts and/or tax increases are a mathematical certainty.

The Argus Leader is passing off false Democrat talking points as "news". Based on all the propaganda that the left is saying about Gannon, the left should believe that the Argus Leader just pulled a "Gannon". A DC based "reporter" sending to a South Dakota newspaper…Democrat talking points disguised as "news". "News" that will be used to attack Thune for cutting "guaranteed benefits". "News" to be repeated by leftwing blogs. Should we care who pays, paid, or will be paying the authors of those blogs? The left's hypocrisy has no limits.

More Democrat hate

From Power Line:

I can't count the number of emails we've gotten from Democrats on the Jeff Gannon "story." For the most part, they drip with venom and irrational hatred. I'd like to believe that there is some kind of a respectable left in this country, but where is it? It sure isn't showing up in our email inbox.

This missive, which came in this morning, is typical:

I guess you "holier-than-thou moral values conservatives" don't have a problem with gay male prostitutes who pose as conservative reporters as long as they are republican, huh? Hypocrites. If there is a god, you hypocrites are all going to hell. (I don't think God will forgive you, even if you ARE republican.)

The stupidity of these people, as well as their malice, is mind-boggling. Can anyone discern what this guy, and the dozens if not hundreds of Democrats who have sent more or less identical emails, are talking about? Why are liberals obsessed with the fact that Jeff Gannon was once a gay escort? Beats me. Why does this character think that as conservatives, we are duty-bound to hate gay escorts? Beats me. We've done close to 10,000 posts on this site, and I doubt that we've ever mentioned gay escorts one way or another. Would I want my son to be one? No. Do I think that having once been a gay escort should disqualify Jeff Gannon from becoming a reporter, or entering any other occupation? No. Why do liberals find this so hard to understand? And how on God's green earth does this make us "hypocrites"?

In search of the truth

That is the motto I have at the top of this web site. There have been some on the left who complain the motto makes me a self-righteous no-it-all. My response to that is simple. If I thought I knew all the truth, why would I still be searching for it?

I began this web site because I have seen another side of issues not getting attention by the MSM. I have written letters to the editor, but I found many restrictions. The Argus Leader is especially restrictive on what I am allowed to say, and when, and how long. Today I have a lot to say, so this will be a very long post.

A couple of days ago, I posted a CBS News report that I found factually incorrect and very misleading. The report was an attempt to discredit the work bloggers performed in exposing the pro-Democrat bias at the Argus Leader. The report is being repeated as the gospel truth by left-leaning web sites including Todd Epp’s Thune Watch web site. There is a comment added to Epp’s post that includes a link to a Joe Conason salon column which also contains false content.

Here is one such falsehood:

While promoting Talon and Gannon as credible journalistic sources, Lauck's blog reprinted sensational paragraphs posted by Gannon on the Talon News Web site, urging readers to take special note of the Talon reporter's "quite interesting article" about Daschle's "Sopranos-style" tactics. The story contained no actual evidence of misconduct by either the Democratic senator or the Sioux Falls newspaperman, beyond anonymous quotes that accused them of Mafia-like intimidation of "small business owners" and other beleaguered anti-Daschle dissidents.

What kind of ‘credible journalist’ would accuse another journalist of using anonymous quotes that were made by Greg Belfrage, Rob Regier, and Steve Hildebrand’s quote as reported by the Washington Post. Here is what Greg Belfrage, host of KELOAM’s Straight Talk, said:

Scorched Earth Policy

Webposted 6/6/2003

A recent Washington Post story is a sign of things to come in the 2004 Senate race. Here's the portion that really caught my eye:

"We will be prepared to confront whatever comes, regardless of intensity levels," said Daschle, who appears poised for hardball. (Daschle campaign manager Steve) Hildebrand said the campaign has assembled embarrassing information on several conservatives who are considering more attack ads against Daschle. The information includes videotape of a conservative activist discussing how he paid for his girlfriend's abortion.

"You'll see us spending a lot of time attacking the attackers," Hildebrand said.

A few days later, I received an email "alert" from Rob Regier. Regier has become a friend of mine, although he and I often do not see eye to eye. Regier is the Executive Director of the Rushmore Policy Council. His efforts to raise money for issue ads targeting Senator Daschle's voting record have been widely reported. Here's a portion of the email that Regier sent (reprinted with permission):

Many of you have heard me give my Christian testimony. In it, I talk about a time in my life when I thought I was man enough to have sex outside of marriage but wasn’t man enough to deal with the consequences. My sinful and cowardly actions led me to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls where I brought an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion.

Thankfully, God sent His Son to die for my sins. I’ve since turned my life over to Christ and now encourage others in my position to choose life instead of death. God has blessed me with many opportunities to take my horrible experience and use it for good.

However, Sen. Tom Daschle is bringing the politics of personal destruction to a new low. He announced that he is going to use a videotape of one my public appearances where I shared my testimony to try to embarrass me.

Here's the Straight Talk: Senator Daschle's campaign manager seems to be involved in a coordinated effort to stifle dissent through intimidation and embarrassment. Senator Daschle's role in this strategy is unclear. However, Steve Hildebrand's comments speak volumes about his intentions. Using someone's Christian testimony for personal political gain is absolutely despicable.

Intimidation and embarrassment seem to be SOP for Steve Hildebrand and some others in the Daschle campaign. I'll be counting the days to see how long it takes for Democrats to deliver a copy of this webpage to my employer. It's happened before. While we're at, let's see how long it takes other local media to report this effort. Or will they simply ignore it? That's exactly what they've done with every other news story that reflects poorly on Senator Daschle.

What I am about to say has been given much thought. I believe Greg Belfrage to be the journalist that I have the most respect for. He is candid about being a conservative and a once Democrat turned Republican. He is not afraid to disagree with Republicans such as South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds. But he was willing to give Rounds and many others that he disagrees with time on his show to defend their positions. He has given Todd Epp, the senior token liberal, airtime and as admitted that Epp is a friend. Yesterday Todd Epp admitted to me that Belfrage is a friend. That speaks volumes on Greg Belfrage the person. It also speaks the same for Todd Epp.

Anyway back to Conason’s propaganda. After calling people like Belfrage anonymous, Conason’s very next paragraph, and then ending, stated other falsehoods:

The bloggers promoted dozens of Talon News attacks on Daschle, under the false flag of journalistic independence. They proclaimed themselves the paladins of truth, battling against South Dakota's "liberal media." Nobody in South Dakota would know until months after Nov. 2, when Daschle was so narrowly defeated, that those "independent" bloggers dogging him had been subsidized by the Thune campaign. But there, on the final post-election filings, were the names Lauck and Van Beek, who had been paid $27,000 and $8,000, respectively.

And nobody in South Dakota could know, until now, the true identity and purpose of "Jeff Gannon" and his employers at Talon News.

Nobody in South Dakota knew the truth about the pro-Republican slant of Talon News? Here is what Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader said on Greg Belfrage’s Straight Talk on June 18, 2003:

Now, they have found an organization that will help them do that. And that’s a group out of D.C. called Talon News, and I use the word "news" very loosely, but I have to say it because it’s in their name. It’s actually a group of Republican party functionaries that purport to cover the news and to report things through the internet that reveal the vast left-wing conspiracy against the Republicans. This is a group – and you can find it on the web site, it’s out there – that even the Republican National Committee disavows. It is so far out there.

Conason’s claim that nobody in South Dakota knew about the Thune campaign subsidizing bloggers is patently false. It was reported on the front-page of the August 9, 2004 Argus Leader:

Blogs run by campaigns often are seen as less pure, so some candidates buy space on independent pages. There can be other ties, too. Lauck dissects "Daschle v. Thune" on his blog without mentioning he's a paid consultant for Thune's campaign.

In that same Argus Leader report, Lauck freely admitted that he was not "independent":

The rules for mainstream writers don't apply to bloggers, Lauck said, because they don't portray themselves as impartial conduits. "I'm for Thune," he said. "That's pretty clear."

Now we have South Dakota Democrats who are so sore about the Daschle defeat that they use the misleading CBS News report and the factually incorrect Conason column to attack John Thune and the credibility of conservative bloggers. It is the conservatives who have been honest about our allegiance, while the left has not. An example is how the Argus Leader’s August 9th report failed to respond to the mountains of evidence we accumulated on their bias:

Lauck and Jason Van Beek, the latter widely credited with starting the South Dakota blogging craze, think such disclosures are important only if they affect coverage. Both men's blogs accuse the Argus Leader of selectively reporting negative stories about Thune and ignoring news that makes Daschle look less favorable. They contend personal relationships and a liberal slant on the editing desk color the Argus Leader's articles.

The newspaper's leadership has dismissed those charges as unfounded.

So as Lacuk was honest about his political ideology, the Argus Leader refused to discuss and report findings that showed the Argus Leader's ideology. So how about finally having a real discussion on the actual content of the charges. Let us review the content of my Argus Leader Bias index. Let’s explore the content of SDP’s Kranz Watch index. Let’s take a hard look at SDP’s four bombshell posts:

The First Bombshell

The Second Bombshell

The Third Bombshell

The Fourth Bombshell Memo

I do not need Jeff Gannon, Jon Lauck, Jason Van Beek, or anybody else to tell me there is a problem of bias at the Argus Leader. I learned that first hand in the 2002 Senate Race between John Thune and Tim Johnson. If the South Dakota Democrats want to talk about collaboration between campaigns and the media, then take a look at the documentation I have regarding Tim Johnson, David Kranz, and Tony Dean as to how the gun issue was handled in 2002. (Download Word file:Download TonyDeanRole2.doc ) Randell Beck has never responded to my numerous attempts to get an explanation for what was going on in 2002. This was the primary reason for starting Sibby Online in 2003.

In fact I discussed that at the Dakota Blog Alliance conference last August. That conference was also discussed in the August 9, 2004 Argus Leader report. Yet only one leftist attended. Are they afraid of the truth?

It is really sad to see how dirty politics can get. We have a bunch of sore losers attacking the personal life of a conservative and then use that to attack the credibility of other conservatives with reporting whose ‘content’ I have just proven to be false. All of this is in an effort to discredit conservatives in name only, because they cannot discredit the ‘content’ of what we stand for. This is very disturbing to one who is ‘in search of the truth’.

But what is even more disturbing is what the left is really up to:

Daschle aides told Roll Call, "This guy (Gannon) became the dumping ground for opposition research." The connections are so strong that there is an FEC challenge which could be a test case on the limits of the use of the Internet in federal campaigns.

As we remember how CBS News used fake documents in an attempt to discredit the President, it is the MSM in collaboration with the Daschle Democrats who are using false reports to advocate the destruction of the Internet’s free speech, that I have enjoyed as a blogger. The leftist South Dakota blogger who is leading that charge is Chad Schuldt, a paid Daschle campaign staffer. Looks like he learned first hand how to use Sopranos-style tactics. The hypocrisy of the left has no limits…and neither do their lies.

Afterthought:

I would never want what happened to Jeff Gannon to happen to David Kranz. He does not deserve to lose his job. I have said this before; David Kranz is passionate about politics. He is a talented writer. He deserves to be promoted and write columns and not be under utilized as a reporter. If the Argus Leader wants a balanced approach, then they should hire a conservative to balance out Kranz. I have recommended this to Randell Beck.

I had a chance to visit with David Kranz prior to Governor Round’s cracker barrel yesterday at the Sioux Falls Holiday Inn. As always he was gracious and a joy to converse with.